of Afhdod and it's dependencies,) "he fhall "" receive of you his ftanding?" though it is not eafy perfectly to make out the explanation; and perhaps in the word tranflated of you there is a corruption'. Marah For it doth not appear of any consequence here, for the prophet to point out the perfons from whom they were to receive the reward of their neglect; and if it were of confequence, the pronoun here made use of feems to be hardly admiffible, fince Micah appears to be speaking, not of petty wars, and the taking revenge upon one another, common enough among the Arab clans and little Eaftern principalities, but of the ravages of fome mighty conqueror enveloping them all in one general calamity. The Bishop of Waterford, in his tranflation, introduces the word reward here as neceflary to make the fense complete: "He fhall receive of you the reward of his station against you." If inftead of (michehem) from you, we read (mecher) which is only the change of one letter in the Hebrew, then the tranflation will be, "He "fhall receive the price (the reward) of his station." The unneceffary pronoun will difappear, and the word reward will be found, not as a fupplemental word, but in the original text. Farther, it doth not appear to me, that the fupplemental words against you, which are not in our verfion, fhould have been introduced by this very respectable prelate; for I should think it is rather to be underftood of negle, tending his flocks when he should have been helping them, than of encamping as an open enemy' against the house of his neighbour. In fhort, I apprehend, the word here ufed reprefents him as acting juft as Reuben did in the time of Deborah and Barak, when Zebulun and Naphtali, two other tribes, were jeopardying "their lives in "the high places of the field." There was a neglect, not engaging in war against them. The verb from which the word tranflated ftation is derived, is not unfrequently applied to the bufinefs of fhepherds: fo If. 61. 5, "Strangers "fhall ftand and feed your flocks, and the fons of the alien "fhall be your plow-men, and your vine-dreffers ;" fo in Marah every body knows was a name given to a place in the defert of Arabia, on the account of the bitterness of the water there, who has read the 15th of Exodus. "And when they "came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter; therefore the name of it was called Marah:" that is, fays the margin, bitterness, verfe 23. As Marah fignifies bitterness, Maroth, which is it's plural, muft fignify the country that had many places of bitter water, which is a juft and lively defcription of that part of Arabia. 66 The pits of Mofes, we are told by Niebuhr, in his description of Arabia, are two German leagues to the Southward of Suez, which is at the end of the Red-Sea, bearing somewhat to the Eaft. They find water there in many places upon digging a foot in depth; but the Arabs fay, that of the five pits that are found there, one pit only affords water that is drinkable. He adds, it may be the Marah men Micah himself, ch. 5. 4, " And he shall ftand and feed in "the ftrength of the Lord." The ftanding then of Zaanan is not to be understood in a warlike fenfe, but a pastoral one; which perfectly fuits the description of this part of the country lying about Gaza, but inhabited by Ægyptians. As, more anciently, Dan was complained of for remaining in his hips, and Asher for continuing on the seaShore, Judges 5. 17, they being maritime tribes, and Reuben, a tribe of fhepherds, for abiding among the fheepfolds, to hear the bleatings of the flocks, ver. 16, and not coming to help the other tribes of Ifrael; fo Zaanan is complained of for abiding in their fhepherd's ftations, inftead of helping their neighbours in their affliction. This appears to me a probable explanation. It lays claim to nothing farther. tioned in the 15th of Exodus is to be fought for here, p. 348. Whether it be, or be not the exact place, it might certainly have been called Marab on the account of the bitter water there, and even Maroth, in the plural, as there are no fewer than four of these pits of bad water. But these are not the only places of bitter water in this country: for Egmont and Heyman fay, (fpeaking of a place called Pharaoh's Baths, which, according to Niebuhr's map of the country between Suez and Mount Sinai, is confiderably farther to the South,) "the water feems to boil as it iffues from the ground, and afterwards forms little rivu"lets, in which, where the heat is not too "violent, many bathe themselves: no cryf"tal is clearer than this water; but it is fo "faturated with faline and fulphureous parti cles, that the tafte is extremely difagree"able." This place, which Wortley Mountague fuppofed was the Marah of the Scriptures, but which is ten German leagues farther to the South, or about forty English miles, according to Niebuhr's map, from the place Niebhur fuppofed to be Marah, is thus defcribed by Mr. Mountague*: "These waters at the fpring are "fomewhat bitter and brackish; but as every "foot they run over the fand is covered with • Vol. 2, p. 183. • Phil. Tranf. vol. 56, p. 53. "bituminous "bituminous falts, grown up by the excef"five heat of the fun, they acquire much "faltness and bitterness, and very foon be"come not potable '." Egmont and Heyman fpeak of these waters only as faline and fulphureous, but Mr. Mountague exprefsly defcribes them as bitter. About fixteen German leagues farther, according to that map, is Tor, a well-known port in the Red-Sea. Not far from it, according to Thevenot, are many wells of bitter water. It seems odd, that he should suppose this place to be the Elim of the Scripture, but the fact I suppose we may depend upon, that there are several wells of bitter water in that place. He fays they are all hot, and are returned again to their bitterness, for he tasted of one of them, where people bathe themselves, which, by the Arabs, is called Hamam Moufa, that is to fay, the bath of Mofes. If we should fuppofe this last place rather too far off, I would remark, that Dr. Shaw tells us, that at Adjeroute, which is nearer the land of the Philistines than any of the places I have been mentioning, and is one of the first ftations of the Mohammedan pilgrims from Ægypt, the water is bitter", Such being the nature of this part of the country-remarkable for many places of bitter water, it may well be understood to have been called by the prophet Maroth. And as the Midianitifh wife of Mofes, is called an Ethiopian woman, who came from this neighbourhood, we may easily perceive who were the Ethiopians, that, according to the 20th of Ifaiah, were to be led away captive with the Egyptians, by the Affyrians, about the time that Abdod was taken by them. Nor is there any difficulty here of making out the connexion, between the occafional name of description the prophet gives this country, and what is faid to have happened to it: The inhabitant of Maroth (the country of bitter waters) waited carefully for good, but (the bitterness of evil came down from the Lord unto the gate of Jerufalem, and threatened their speedy ruin. I will only add one remark more, and that is, that if it should be objected, that this explanation fuppofes, that fome towns or countries are called by their common names, and that others have invented names of defcription given them, which feems very strange, I would beg leave to refer fuch readers to the 25th of Jeremiah, where, after many princes are named by their proper titles, at laft the king of Babylon appears to be spoken of, under the caballiftical denomination of the king of Sheshach, This is generally, I think, understood to be the meaning of the prophet, and the 12th verse of that chapter feems to prove it. In like manner we find a country pointed out by a poetic I |